Blogging VS Instagram—What Say You?

We all know change is inevitable, change can be good, change can be bad, but nothing stays the same. Change is a fact of life. Although today, it seems our half lives are doubling down quicker then we can say “cheese”, that we barely have the time to absorb the latest trend or master the latest technological advancement when it has already moved beyond the horizon. And as we scramble to keep up we are often left scratching our heads—wondering, hmm now how did that happen?

that in the not too distant future blogs will be a thing of the past—a fuzzy distant digital memory like mixed tapes and zip drives

There has been of late, much chatter in the blogosphere about the increasing encroachment of Instagram and the impact the social media app is having (or not having) on the world of blogging. I have spoken with more then one blogger that has expressed their concern that in the not too distant future blogs will be a thing of the past—a fuzzy distant digital memory like mixed tapes and zip drives. To be usurped by Instagram, which will become the go to visual resource for everything from fashion to food, and that all creative online interactions will be reduced to a quick insincere “like”.

And it seems the blogosphere and the non blogging IG sphere of influence has become increasingly competitive with everyone trying to outdo one another for more followers and likes. Just scroll through your Instagram feed and do a little exploring and it won’t take you long to find people with 25,50, 75 to over 100 thousand followers. How do they do it we ask? How do they attain that elusive “K”. Especially when they are not the likes of Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid. How does one get that much exposure?

Despite all the helpful tips on how to grow your Instagram feed the internet is rife with, anyone who spends anytime at all using social media is fully aware that it is not just about posting great photos, and liking and following other people. One would literally have spend eighty plus hours week doing nothing but that, and they would still be hard pressed to reach these seemingly dizzying heights. So Friday night as I commuted home from work I decided to do a little digging.

I went through the feed of a random person on Instagram who had about 70k followers or so and I looked closely at this person’s followers. I looked for names that did not sound like real names or followers without a profile image and it did not take me long to find a dozen or so suspicious profiles. The red flags that went up when viewing these profiles were that these “followers” tended to post very few photos, they usually had under hundred followers, but were following thousands of other people— we are talking anywhere from roughly three thousand to over seven thousand followers. Why would some one who only posted 24 photos be following seven thousand people?

yet with minimal effort I was able to uncover blatantly bogus followers on the very first person I investigated

I am certainly not a professional sleuth, and I only invested a whopping ten to fifteen minutes, and yet with minimal effort I was able to uncover blatantly bogus followers on the very first person I investigated. So the question begs—what are we to believe? And if so many people are buying followers and playing the system, does that not change the landscape? I mean if everyone is buying fake followers and quickly blowing through their feed liking photos only to move on in blur of social media aqustion. Is anyone actually looking? Wasn’t that the point of Instagram to begin with? Looking? To be inspired by and influenced by great photos and to share these images with the world at large? But if no one is spending any time actually looking, and the ones doing the looking are not even real, then what is the point?

I for one, need more then a thumb sized image and a quick one line explanation to be truly excited and motivated

Not that Instagram can not be a powerful tool, it certainly can, and for all the bogus inflated accounts out there, there are influencers who gained their followers via a combination of hard work, creativity and some luck. Case in point: Lynn Slater of The Accidental Icon.  I had been following Lynn for a while when she happily informed me one evening over drinks that Gray Magazine had found her through Instagram and that they liked her feed and her blog so much they wanted to feature her in their magazine, and not only that they were even going to put her on the cover. And I watched over the course of a few months how her Instagram postings went from an average of 80 likes to well over a thousand. And ironically this increased exposure was achieved via an “old fashion” medium— a print magazine. It also, needless to say, increased traffic to her blog two fold. And though this is a wonderful example of the power of Instagram, to me it should always be what it is— an app, a tool, a way to connect with the world, and yes a way to market yourself or your brand if you so choose.

The world would be sad and dreary place indeed, if it is reduced to the visual equivalent of a soundbite

But I for one, need more then a thumb sized image and a quick one line explanation to be truly excited and motivated. I want too look at and read blogs with their large beautiful photographic images and insightful writing. And on that note, the same could be said for magazines. I love them as well with their exquisitely curated styling, high end photography and long from stories. The world would be sad and dreary place indeed, if it is reduced to the visual equivalent of a soundbite. So bring on the blogs and keep those magazines coming, because the world—and that’s us folks, needs to slow down long enough to see the beauty that is right in front of it.